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Do you see advocacy as a potential way of dealing with some of the challenges that we have discussed at previous meetings, such as the tension between the child’s welfare and their right to be heard and to participate?

Good morning and thank you for joining us today and for your opening remarks. You have already given us a lot of information and a lot to think about.

I will put this question to all three of you, if that is okay. Following on from the questions about advocacy services that I asked the first panel, can you tell us a little bit more about the role that the children’s advocate performs in the current hearings system and tribunals? What can we learn from that—what are the pros and cons of having a system that has a significant role for children’s advocates?

Jordan Croan spoke about the distinction between advocacy and independent advocacy. How do we draw that out in the children’s advocate issue?

Lesley-Anne, what are your views on the specialised hearings suites and associated possibilities?

Thank you. I will leave it there, given the time.

No, that is okay. It was about the need for a focus on other planning reforms and, linked to that, planning powers with regard to the resilience, recovery and liveability of our town centres.

Good morning, Professor Sparks, and thank you for your comments so far this morning. My questions follow on from Colin Smyth’s questions about planning, community engagement and bottom-up participation. In your opening remarks and in your answers to Colin, you talked about the policy strengthening that is needed in planning, with a moratorium on out-of-town developments, but you have also spoken about the need for alignment across all the different actions—the delivery plans, development plans and strategies—with an understanding of the place principle at its heart. I am interested in how, beyond the moratorium that you have talked about, we can use NPF4 to deliver some of that alignment for us.

You have also spoken about our transport systems, the need to shift away from the car and the importance of green spaces. Given that town centres are much more than just high streets, what aspects of planning reform are needed if we are looking to focus on resilience and recovery, but also on liveable town centres where communities feel that they can stay, live, learn, grow and play? That is a big question.

Super. That is reassuring.

On the monitoring, which you mentioned, we heard last week that the accommodation fund is really welcome but that it has come quite slowly and there is not always follow-up to ensure that it is being spent in appropriate ways. Would one way to help that work be to include a statutory requirement for public bodies, such as local authorities and health boards, to set out delivery plans? We heard that recommendation from one of our witnesses last week. Enshrining such a duty would emphasise that such work was not just a nice to have, but an essential part of what our public agencies and public bodies need to do to help to complete the circle and ensure that there is clear follow-through and delivery.

Good morning, minister. I am really happy to see you with us this morning. Welcome to our committee.

Thank you for opening your remarks by talking about the Gypsy and Roma Traveller communities. Last week’s session was a really important part of the committee’s work. Several concerns were expressed by witnesses last week about the long-term sustainability of Gypsy Traveller communities. Some of those concerns are not new. Davie Donaldson, in particular, said that, five years ago, people were talking about stagnation on work on the action plan and other support.

One thing came out quite strongly. At the start of Covid, there was clear co-ordination across services, but that has now fallen away. Can you comment on how, collectively, we can ensure that the partnership working and the overarching, holistic approach that are needed are not piecemeal but reach into the different areas of policy and support in an effective way that secures the long-term sustainability of Gypsy communities?

You touched on the work that has been done to improve the data collection that we do. The equality data improvement plan is under way, but you have spoken about the work that Lesley Irving will be doing. I am interested in joining the dots between the data that we get and how we fund third sector and other organisations to deliver support and other services. As you will know, one of the key challenges for many third sector organisations is project-focused funding, which does not necessarily allow for full cost recovery, full backroom support and a trauma-informed approach.

How is your thinking developing when it comes to joining the dots on the data that we know we need to collect, which evidences need and therefore allows us to provide the expert support organisations that are out there with the full funding that they need, rather than just covering the front-line service delivery costs?

Thank you both for those answers. Nick, I might pick your brains about that in future, outwith the committee.